Accessibility modeling for land use, population and public transportation in Mashhad, NE Iran

Abstract

Accessibility analysis is an important subject in urban land use assessment and transportation management in order to predict the travel supply-demands of residential population and to allocate main land use destinations. In the present study, a GIS-based accessibility modeling for land use and public transport analysis was constructed to measure and survey the accessibility levels in different zones of Mashhad city, North-eastern Iran. Analytic network process was used to obtain the weights of the criteria, which are applied to produce a unique main land use (MLU) layer. Then, correlation coefficients for analysis of relationship between MLU destinations and their trip attractions, bus stations of public transportation (PT) and residential population (RP) was carried out. Results revealed that, the current development of PT in Mashhad does not bear a direct spatial relationship with RP (with R = −0.40) and starting point of urban trips. Statistically, current development of PT in Mashhad depends on the MLU destinations (with R = 0.64) especially commercial constructions.